Search

BECAUSE us girls crave records and books and fanzines that speak to US that WE feel included in and can understand in our own ways.

BECAUSE we wanna make it easier for girls to see/hear each other’s work so that we can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other.
BECAUSE we must take over the means of production in order to create our own moanings.

BECAUSE viewing our work as being connected to our girlfriends-politics-real lives is essential if we are gonna figure out how we are doing impacts, reflects, perpetuates, or DISRUPTS the status quo.

BECAUSE we recognize fantasies of Instant Macho Gun Revolution as impractical lies meant to keep us simply dreaming instead of becoming our dreams AND THUS seek to create revolution in our own lives every single day by envisioning and creating alternatives to the bullshit christian capitalist way of doing things.

BECAUSE we want and need to encourage and be encouraged in the face of all our own insecurities, in the face of beergutboyrock that tells us we can’t play our instruments, in the face of “authorities” who say our bands/zines/etc are the worst in the US and

BECAUSE we don’t wanna assimilate to someone else’s (boy) standards of what is or isn’t.

BECAUSE we are unwilling to falter under claims that we are reactionary “reverse sexists” AND NOT THE TRUEPUNKROCKSOULCRUSADERS THAT WE KNOW we really are.

BECAUSE we know that life is much more than physical survival and are patently aware that the punk rock “you can do anything” idea is crucial to the coming angry grrrl rock revolution which seeks to save the psychic and cultural lives of girls and women everywhere, according to their own terms, not ours.

BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-heirarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.

BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives.
BECAUSE we see fostering and supporting girl scenes and girl artists of all kinds as integral to this process.

BECAUSE we hate capitalism in all its forms and see our main goal as sharing information and staying alive, instead of making profits of being cool according to traditional standards.

BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak.

BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors.

BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.

Wrote this poem a month or so ago, maybe a little more. First non-school, non-blog, non-tumblr writing I’ve done in a while.

You’re so literal
If I said I wanted to hold you forever
Would you let me?
If you told me
you wanted to kiss me all night long
would we fall asleep with our lips pressed together?

I would wake up with a mouth full of cavities –
your breath is sweeter than anything
I’ve ever tasted.
I’m a kid in a candy store.
You’re my gobstopper –
hard to crack
constantly revealing a new layer
I could suck on you all day long.

But I suck at this, most days.
This
like
love
want
need
can’t get enough of
thing.

I’m trying to get better at you.
I’ll study you
like a foreign language –
take each syllable and roll it around
in my mouth
until the pronunciation
jumps off my tongue.

But I’ll keep your name a secret
hold it in my teeth
chew it like a piece of gum
I hope you never lose your flavor
because I don’t ever want to
forget the taste.

Can I just get a little taste
of the way you see the world?
I’d like to see everything through your eyes
I’d like to see your eyes.
I’d like to watch them close
tonight.

“Because emotional intimacy is about self-disclosure and revealing oneself to others, when people are intimate with each other, they open themselves to vulnerability. In the process of becoming intimate, one person shares feelings and information about her-/himself, and then the other person (if that person want to maintain and develop intimacy) responds by sharing too. In turn each gives away little pieces of her-/himself, and, in return, mutual trust, understanding, and friendship develop. Given the baggage of gender, however, what can happen is that one person does more of the giving away, and the other reveals less; one opens up to being vulnerable, and the other maintains personal power. The first person also takes on the role of helping the other share, drawing that person out, translating ordinary messages for their hidden emotional meanings, and investing greater amounts of energy into interpersonal communication. The first person has taken the role prescribed by femininity and the latter the role that masculinity endorses. The important point here is that intimacy is about power. Men who take on masculine scripts tend to be less able to open themselves up because of anxiety associated with being vulnerable and potentially losing personal power.”

There are so many roots to the tree of anger
that sometimes the branches shatter
before they bear.
Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march
discussing the problematic girls
they hire to make them free.
An almost white counterman passes
a waiting brother to serve them first
and the ladies neither notice nor reject
the slighter pleasures of their slavery.
But I who am bound by my mirror
as well as my bed
see causes in color
as well as sex

for Introduction to Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies was to articulate what feminism means to me, if I identify as a feminist, what my associations with feminism are, etc. Here’s my response:

“I’ve been calling myself a feminist for literally as long as I can remember. I’m not sure when or where I first heard the word, but something about it stuck with me; it’s been a key personal identifier ever since. Looking back, I realize my identification as feminist developed organically, without any pressure from my mother or other adults in my life. In fact, I’m not even sure if my mom calls herself a feminist. Despite that, my mom is the very reason I became a feminist so early in life. From the beginning, she taught me (and my brother) that we were equal, both in her eyes and in life. We played with the same toys, we dressed up, and my mom never scolded me for wanting to build towers or my brother for playing with me and my dollhouse. She wanted us to feel comfortable being and doing what felt right – what was fun.

When I was 7, my parents decided to get divorced. From that point on, I was effectively raised by my mother – a single parent with two children and her own business. My dad has remained in my life, but my mom is the person I turn to for everything. Her struggle to keep a business afloat, her decision to return to law, her tireless efforts to help my brother and I become the best we could possibly be; those are just a few of the (literally) countless reasons my mother inspired me to feminism. My entire life, I’ve witnessed the power of one woman triumphing over every obstacle in her path. In the face of that kind of strength, how can I deny the value of women and their contributions to society?

I’m constantly struggling to understand and define exactly what feminism means. Until very recently, I defined feminism as equality among genders. My definition was called into question about a month ago as I read a post on one of my favorite feminist blogs, Feministe. Maia, the blogger, wrote about her experiences with feminism, as a woman of color. She made some fairly inflammatory statements about the failings of feminism and her issues with commending feminists for victories that they did not achieve alone, or that they did not achieve on behalf of all women. To me, her most compelling statement was this: “if the common definition for feminism [is] to be treated equal to a man. im not interested in feminism. that is not the goal of the women with whom ive worked. 1/3 of black men are in the prison industrial system. i am working for a different world for my daughter.” Upon reading that, I realized that the struggle for “equality” does not make sense in the eyes of many, especially women of color for whom equality with men means higher rates of imprisonment, violence, drug use. Equality is not what these women are after.

I now define feminism as the quest to ensure every person’s freedom to come into their own power and truth. I am no longer searching to be equal to men, but to break down the barriers put in front of all genders, so that we may all have the opportunity to be the best versions of ourselves.”

On a side note I feel like taking a class called “Introduction to GWSS” is mildly hilarious. My whole life feels like an introduction to GWSS, given the friends, family and experiences I’ve had.